M20-24 Half Marathon: Graves dominates in the Huntsville cold

• Dalton Graves, 21, wins in 1:13:07 — a 5:35/mi pace through 29°F temperatures and a 16 mph wind, finishing 2nd among all men in the field.
• Top three separated by just 2:31 — Porter (1:14:51) and Hobbs (1:15:38) kept it honest, but Graves was never truly threatened.
• Bennett Brake made the strongest late move — climbing from 13th to 9th among men on the back half, posting the 7th-fastest split on the 6.8M-to-finish stretch in the men's field.
• A 54-man group with a 22-minute spread from 1st to 20th place, reflecting a wide range of finishing speeds on a sharp winter morning.

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Dalton Graves came to Huntsville and left little doubt. The 21-year-old from Mooresville, NC, ran 1:13:07 — a 5:35 per mile average — in conditions that would slow most runners: 29°F at the gun, clear skies doing nothing to soften a 16 mph wind. He held 2nd among all men throughout and posted the 3rd-fastest split on the 6.8-mile closing stretch in the men's field, meaning he was accelerating, not just surviving, when it mattered most.

Mark Porter, racing at home in Huntsville, gave chase and finished 2nd in M20-24 in 1:14:51. Ian Hobbs, the youngest of the trio at 20, rounded out the podium in 1:15:38 — his 5:46 pace holding steady for 3rd. Hobbs also put up the 4th-fastest closing split among men, edging out Porter's 5th-fastest on that same stretch. The three of them crossed in a tight 2:31 window that made for a genuinely competitive top of the board.

Behind them, Bennett Brake was the story of the second half. Starting 13th among men, the 24-year-old from Quincy, MA, worked his way to 9th with the 7th-fastest closing split in the men's field — a well-timed surge that earned him 4th in M20-24 at 1:21:22. Fifth went to Aidan Barton (1:24:06), with Cotton Peters and Collin Benoit rounding out the top seven before the field spread considerably into the 1:30s and beyond.